The Census will Show...

Last week I recieved a rather large bill in my post office box. The ammount was 568 hryven, over 100 dollars. I had been expecting a bill from the post office, but not one quite so large. Last year, my PO box only cost me 25 hryven -- for the whole year. So, as you might imagine, I was rather shocked by the inflation.

I asked Larissa to help me figure out the bill. She took it to the post office.
"This bill is not yours," she told me the next day at school, "It belongs to the person who is now using your box."
"Oh," I said, rather confused, "Why is someone using my box?"
"Because it is no longer your box," she replied, "You must return your key to the post office today."
"Oh"
"You paid for one year and the year is up," Larissa continued, "and they gave your box to someone else."
"Oh"
"They said they will find you another box, but you must go return the key today," she said.
"Okay, I will. Thanks," I said, still a little confused.

After school I went to the post office and returned the key.
"Do you need another box?" the woman working asked me.
"Yes, please," I said. The woman then pulled out a large binder and flipped to the back where there was a list of all -- all 35 that is -- PO boxes in Bar. I looked at box number two, my old box, and saw that my name had been crossed off and replaced with someone elses.
"What about number 20?" the woman said.
"Okay," I said indifferently.
"Here, try this key," she said, fishing out a key from a drawer. It worked. I paid for the box and left.

Short story long: I have a new PO box number and it's number 20. My mailing address remains the exact same except instead of #2, send my letters to #20. Not so complicated really. I still don't really understand why I had to switch boxes when there are nearly 15 userless PO boxes, but that's Ukraine. And I can't fight Ukraine.

***

Next week was supposed to be Spring Break, but because we were under "quarantine" for ten days in February, we don't get the whole break. We have school on Monday and Tuesday; however, on those days we will be teaching lessons for Thursday and Friday. You follow? Monday I have my Thursday lessons and Tuesday I have my Friday lessons. Makes perfect sense.

Last week my teachers had to go around the city and take a census. No joke. The city was split into four sections and each of the four schools was responsible for taking a census in its respective section.

We had a big teacher's meeting at my school during the "long break" between the 4th and 5th lessons. (Our "long break" is 20 minutes.) The vice principal assigned all the teachers different streets. They were responsible for finding out who lived in the house, what they did, how long they'd lived there, the names of any children who might live there and the school which the children attend. The meeting lasted well into the 5th lesson, as there was much huffing and puffing about street assignments.

"I can't believe you have to go house to house and take a census," I whispered to Sasha, my fellow English teacher, "I mean, if you told a bunch of American teachers that they had to go house to house and take a census..."
"Yes, I know, it is ridiculous," Sasha said, "But it is our SSR legacy. It's not so hard really. And look at us, we're sitting here talking about it and the 5th lesson is almost over. The school is flexible with us, so we must be flexible with the school."
"I guess," I said, shaking my head.

No teacher ever came a knockin at my door. Hmmm... cracks in the system? Or does everyone just already know my business? Probably a little bit of both.